A contrastive analysis of absolute constructions in French, German and Norwegian

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of similarities and differences concerning absolute constructions in French, German and Norwegian. In the first part, I have examined a more general question raised by these constructions: the connections between these types of absolute constructions and the matrix subject. I have shown that the means by which the absolute constructions are related to the subject can be morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmatic. The second part contains a purely contrastive analysis. Two issues have been examined: on the one hand, the absolute constructions and their congruent and non-congruent correspondences, on the other, the use of determiners. Essentially, French is different from the two Germanic languages, but similarities also exist between French and German, which are the center of a European Sprachbund.